Gears producer or consultant?

Our work is profoundly changing, more and more often we find ourselves being consultants rather than mere executors of parts. Even the engineering department is starting to feel the need to specialize and work vertically. If once it was enough to have an overall knowledge, today it is necessary to rely on professionals to avoid having productions that present errors or non-conformities. Recently it happened to us that a customer had a product to produce, as always, but after doing an in-depth technical analysis, various problems emerged from the drawings. So we needed to understand which was the main problem of the client, in the end it appeared that they had reduced knowledge about the parts they were asking us. So, they ask us for a consultancy.

The future of the sector: specialization

In the coming years, having in-depth knowledge on specific topics will be really complex, because the more technology evolves, the more impossible it will be to have a single supplier for everything. The customer will probably only take care of assembling and reselling the finished product, therefore the technical department will rightly have specific skills on the product as a whole. This assumes that the supplier is no longer just a component manufacturer, but also a consultant, to help the customer in the technical realization of the same.

This is now a trend that has become increasingly prevalent in recent months, customers who ask us for help because they have a problem and can't find the solution. Relying on a supplier with vertical experience on a product made for different sectors presupposes having access to know-how built up over years of experience useful for solving any problems with the product.

Value for money

Obviously the focus of our reflection here is to ask ourselves a slightly provocative question: "Do I prefer to have a product that will not have problems, in the face of a higher expense, justified by the higher quality of the supplier, or do I want to remain in the logic of who gives me the lowest price?"

Surely, it is simplistic to summarize everything in this question, but we use it because it focuses on what is the reality of a commercial negotiation in our sector. The focus is shifting from the product to the manufacturer and how to verify his skills a priori before entrusting him with the order. If until a few months ago it was almost all a matter of price, now it is becoming a matter of trust and reliability.

What is the main aspect that leads you to choose a supplier?